Seeing such a gesture, Adam spoke up.
"There's really no need for such reverence. You don't have to call me 'My Lord'."
"From the moment I witnessed such a perfect manifestation of the Machine God's grand power, I understood clearly—this is the future hope of the Imperium of Man," Cawl replied.
"To be honest, by any definition, I am not a god." Adam sighed as he heard that title once again.
Familiar. All too familiar. The "smell" of this situation was as authentic as it gets.
This left Cawl, who had already experienced the "baptism" of the Great Crusade ten thousand years ago, somewhat caught between laughter and tears.
'Are you going to tell me a theory next called the 'Imperial Truth' and start preaching that there are no gods in this world? Do all the gods of us humans have to act this humble? '
The two walked swiftly through the long corridor, the characteristic eerie green cold light of the Tomb World reflecting off their bodies, while simultaneously illuminating the figures of approaching attackers.
Adam remained silent. A ball of plasma materialized out of thin air in his palm, slicing through the atmosphere. In an instant, it melted a Skorpekh Destroyer in front of him. Immediately following with a backhand strike, he blew apart a Deathmark attempting to ambush him.
Meanwhile, the servo-skulls controlled by Cawl roared in unison, their Machine Spirits in great joy. Their terrifying suppressive fire easily ground the other approaching Canoptek Scarabs and Necron Warriors into dust.
After easily dealing with this wave of interference, Adam turned to Cawl and said:
"No, you don't understand my meaning. How do you define a 'God'? Or rather, what kind of entity do you call a god? An entity possessing grand power unattainable by ordinary men? A religiously defined omniscient and omnipotent being? A distant spiritual anchor? An entity representing all the fine virtues and ultimate answers of humanity?"
Belisarius Cawl fell into deep thought. He began to understand what the other was trying to express.
"It is undeniable that there are indeed beings in this universe who can be called gods. I have no intention of creating a doctrine that completely ignores things that already exist. That would just be another form of religious belief and idealism; the only difference would be the mode of expression."
Adam paused as if considering something, but continued:
"Because gods do exist, and religious faith is indeed effective. However, this has simultaneously caused immense damage to rationality."
In his past life, although Adam was very dissatisfied with the SCP Foundation and the Global Occult Coalition chasing him for so long, he couldn't deny that they also lived in a world filled with dancing demons, gods, and other weird things. Yet, they truly used human tenacity and reason to carve out a path from the darkness—a path different from this universe.
The Imperium of Man was different. Currently, Adam was still a special force operating outside the Imperium's established order. Under the "rigorous selection" of a certain golden figure sitting on a throne, the teammates he had encountered so far were the rare "normal" people in this cesspool; to some extent, they could even be called "very un-Imperial."
The Sisters of Battle didn't spend every waking moment thinking about tying heretics to a stake; the Custodes weren't isolated and arrogant; the Tech-Priests of the Mechanicus actually retained an incredibly rare spirit of progress and innovation; even a fanatical Inquisitor knew how to use rational analysis and judge the situation.
But if Adam, who found everything else in the Imperium distasteful, wanted to change it and communicate with those who had become mad and fanatical under the oppression of this decaying environment, they would surely give him a "little Imperial shock."
He couldn't exactly brainwash and personality-remodel every single one of them, right?
"I understand your meaning," Archmagos Cawl nodded. 'I get it. Isn't this just wanting to restore the reason and progress of the Great Crusade era?'
"This is very difficult. Even with your grand power, trying to completely revitalize a galactic empire that has been sinking for ten thousand years is a task full of setbacks."
"I can do it," Adam said as if it were a matter of course.
"...Then, I would be honored to be a fellow traveler on this luminous path," Cawl replied seriously after a moment of silence.
"Coming back to the point, your primary task is to not perceive me as a supreme deity," Adam smiled. "For example, discard religious titles. Refer to a 'god' as an 'Apex Multiversal Entity.' Do your best to de-mystify the divinity surrounding them."
"Don't perceive my abilities as divine gifts either; just call it 'Reality Bending' or refer to me as a 'Type Green.' Use this power rationally and objectively."
Based on the information he knew before crossing over, he continued to explain:
"A reality bender's power is limited by their self-perception and their understanding of the world. Therefore, maintaining rational restraint often makes one's abilities more stable."
It was for this very reason that the Foundation's method for handling reality benders involved deception and information suppression, which could significantly reduce the difficulty of containment.
There were many examples: deceiving a young girl into thinking she was an apprentice wizard who had to chant spells before using her power; or deceiving a supersonic girl into thinking she was merely a "speedster" superhero, and so on.
Adam didn't want to find a suitable convert only to have them view this miraculous ability as a divine miracle, which would greatly waste the Reality Strength he had expended.
"I understand." Fortunately, Cawl's experience and character were sufficient for him to grasp Adam's underlying meaning. He nodded.
Meanwhile, deep within the Tomb World.
"This is what you called the enemy that is easiest for us to deal with first?" Sutton stared at the projection screen, lost in thought.
"Exactly. Just trust me," Trazyn said with absolute confidence. "According to my understanding of the Imperium of Man, the composition of the members in that squad is extremely elite—rare even in their own history."
His finger pointed across the figures projected above the Canoptek Spyder as he explained them one by one.
"This gold-plated thing is called a Custodian. You can think of it as a member of the human 'Triarch Praetorians,' or even an enhanced version. Not easy to mess with."
"This winged fellow is a sorcerous creation of a certain piece of 'old necron-like guy' on Terra. Not easy to mess with."
"This one appears to be an Inquisitor with significant psychic strength. Not easy to mess with."
After introducing the identities of all the members and doxxing them one by one, Trazyn finally pointed at the target he had selected.
"It's him. The uniform he's wearing is that of an Astra Militarum Commissar, but to put it bluntly, he's just a mortal. The most suitable candidate to strike first."
"I understand the logic," Sutton stared at the oversized mechanical claw on Yarrick's right arm and fell into contemplation. "But why does the prosthetic arm on this mortal's right side look so much like the style of an Ork?"
"Oh, don't worry about it," Trazyn waved his hand dismissively. "Human technology is so crude it's practically indistinguishable from Orks anyway—all just big, dumb, and clunky. You don't actually think he has a Waaagh! energy field, do you? That would be insane!"
"Alright, you have a point," Sutton nodded, convinced.
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Yes yes, target the 'weakest' link